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Thanks for the warning, but can you provide a link please? It is a copyright violation to take content and repost like that from a media site without any link to the original source (so yo definitely can't tell people to copy anything they want from it and report unless you have direct permission from the website) and generally just the link to a story is preferable please, thanks!

OK I found the ink and am substituting that for the story. I am not so sure this isn;t typical Daily Mail sensationalising of a single instance though... these potential adverse effects are well flagged in the literature that comes with the treatment and I think would be pretty well identified (eg I wuld have known of this risk and have never even had a dog on this particular NSAID)-- I am a bit surprised any vet would be so shocked, as just about all medications including aspirin can have adverse and sometimes rare but lethal side effects. NSAIDS all need to be carefully considered but in the vast majority of cases, the benefits outweigh the tiny risks. We (humans) have to make similar decisions all the time -- many of us have conditions of chronic pain where the only choice is longterm use of NSAIDS or steroids to manage on a daily basis. Some NSAIDS have more risks in one area but less in others. For a dog really suffering with arthritis, I'd not deny pain relief out of concern for the drugs, but people should talk through all the options with their vet, in detail. I know many elderly dogs that have greatly benefited from injections of this drug.

One point is that labs like some other breeds have a very high rate of arthritis due to joint problems that are endemic in the breed. If puppy buyers supported health tested breeders working to lower the risk of such problems, it would spare this kind of heartbreak and a lot of what has become routine pain for dogs like labs, in many cases. I wish more of the focus would be back to what caused these issues in such breeds in the first place.

After a bad experience re Metacam a long time ago re gastro bleeding. I researched Metacam. I would never give my paws Metacam, when they where spayed I asked for alternatives. Its owners personal choice.